US: Ashcroft Asks Telcom to Help Track Terroristsby Brian Krebs, Newsbytes.comMarch 1st, 2002U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft shopped the Bush administration's anti-terrorism agenda to the nation's regional telecom providers today, urging them to press ahead with reforms that would make it easier for the government to intercept terrorist communications.

US: Williams Co. Spinoff May Seek Bankruptcyby Kenneth N. Gilpin, New York TimesFebruary 26th, 2002The Williams Communications Group, the troubled provider of broadband network services, said yesterday that it was looking to restructure its debt obligations and that it might seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors.

US: Microsoft's Lobbying Efforts Eclipse Enronby Matt Loney, ZDNet (UK)February 12th, 2002Microsoft's budget for political lobbying exceeded that of Enron, the judge residing over the antitrust case has heard. The software giant's budget for its Political Action Committee (PAC) increased from about $16,000 in 1995 to $1.6 million in 2000, according to Edward Roeder, a self-styled expert on efforts to influence the U.S. government, and founder of Sunshine Press Services, a news agency devoted to investigating money in politics.

US: Bush Sr.'s Ties to Global Crossingby David Lazarus, San Francisco ChronicleFebruary 11th, 2002President Bush had good reason to take an interest in Enron's demise. Aside from his close personal ties to the Houston energy giant, nearly three dozen of his senior appointees owned Enron shares upon arriving at the White House last year.

BRAZIL: Recife -- the New Silicon Valleyby Paulo Reblo, Wired.comJanuary 18th, 2002Recife, in Northeastern Brazil, is being given a technology makeover to make it a sort of Brazilian Silicon Valley surrounded by the sea. Its goal is to lure both international and Brazilian IT companies and startups to this digital port.

WORLD: Digital Divide is Racism's New Frontierby Robin Chandler, The Guardian (UK)January 17th, 2002The internet is slow to recognise its responsibilities as an ethical player. If we have racism, a digital divide is its new colonial frontier. Passions surrounding the access and control of IT worldwide have triggered a cultural revolution.

US: FBI Software Records Each Keystrokeby Bob Port, Seattle TimesDecember 18th, 2001The FBI is planning to give away computer software. All you have to do to get some is make the bureau think you're involved in crime.

US: Software Firms Say FBI Eavesdropping UnacceptableReutersDecember 11th, 2001Antivirus software vendors said Monday they don't want to create a loophole in their security products to let the FBI or other government agencies use a virus to eavesdrop on the computer communications of suspected criminals.

US: Microsoft and Justice Department Near Dealby Joseph Menn, New York TimesNovember 1st, 2001The Justice Department has reached a tentative settlement to end its 3-year-old antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. and is trying to persuade the 18 states that joined the case to agree to the same terms, people briefed on the talks said late Wednesday.

EU: Secret Spy Network Formed to Track Protestorsby Stephen Castle, The Independent (UK)August 20th, 2001European leaders have ordered police and intelligence agencies to co-ordinate their efforts to identify and track the anti-capitalist demonstrators whose violent protests at recent international summits culminated in the shooting dead by police of a young protester at the Genoa G8 meeting last month.

NETHERLANDS: Global Treaty a Threat to the Net?by Lisa M. Bowman, ZDNNJuly 22nd, 2001International policy-makers this week ended a round of talks aimed at setting common rules affecting online trade and commerce, but they made little progress in bridging divisions that threaten to delay the pact.

US: Media Giants Lobbying to Privatize Airwavesby Jeremy Rifkin, The Guardian (London)April 28th, 2001Imagine a world in which a handful of global media conglomerates like Vivendi, Sony, BskyB, Disney, and News Corporation own literally all the airwaves all over the planet and trade them back and forth as 'private electronic real estate'. A strategy is beginning to unfold in Washington DC to make that happen.

INDIA: Most Literate State Plans IT Revolutionby R. L. Bindu, Inter Press ServiceApril 23rd, 2001Realising that the state is lagging behind other provinces in India's great information technology (IT) race, the rulers of Kerala have shed off ideological opposition to high technology.

ARGENTINA: Poor Left Out of Internet Crazeby Chris Moss, New InternationalistApril 1st, 2001Arriving in Buenos Aires from the pampa hinterland is like playing a simulation game called First World. The concentration of capital, concrete and a third of the Argentine population is dizzying for anyone approaching from the small farming towns of the province or from the far-flung villages of empty Patagonia and the northern altiplano.

UK: How the Market Made Us Stupidby Will Hutton, The Observer (London)March 18th, 2001Four trillion dollars is a lot of money. It is the entire annual output of Britain and France put together. It is also the amount American investors in high-tech shares have lost over the past 12 months -- and that's before their losses in the rest of the stock market.

US: It's Not Easy Being Greenby Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon.comDecember 7th, 2000The truth is, even policymakers, social scientists, environmentalists and engineers don't really know for sure. Researchers are only now beginning to study what e-commerce means for the Earth.